| Prince breaks with past habits in a loose late-night Chanhassen concert but keeps the funk intact. Late-night shows were commonplace at Paisley in the late 1990s but Prince had not done any announced shows there since 2004, after his Musicology Tour concerts at Xcel Energy Center. Those soirees cost $50 whereas Saturday's gig (which was announced late Friday afternoon) was $31.21 for fan-club members and $40 for others. Paisley visitors were asked to donate items for food shelves and gently used coats. (Many articles of clothing still had store tags on them, and people literally donated coats off their backs, Paisley spokeswoman Kathy Adams reported.) Many of the people at Paisley on Saturday seemed to be first-timers for the late-night Purple experience. "I'd pay triple what I paid," said Kelly Wallace, 19, a wide-eyed New York University student who popped for $490 for her short-notice trip to Minnesota. "I've never been to Paisley Park -- it was now or never." Prince played 10 minutes short of three hours without changing his outfit. That's a first. Moreover, there weren't any of those mysterious breaks where Paisley-goers were left wondering if he'd return again in an hour and perform until dawn. The Purple One made a couple exits before encores; he said his final good night at 2 a.m. Prince showed more versatility and musicality in his first hour onstage than Michael Jackson did in his entire career. He started with a bunch of tunes from this year's "Lotusflow3r" collection and then paraded through his hits, especially from the 1980s. In fact, there wasn't one tune from the '90s and only "Feel 4 U" from the '70s. With his horn-less band, Prince has never sounded funkier at Paisley. He was talkative and humorous, loose and spontaneous, calling out songs and arrangements as well as an occasional "so-low" for himself on guitar. To witness that kind of organic musicmaking always feels special -- especially when it's a well-drilled, first-rate band like Prince's -- even if you have to put up with the bandleader frequently telling the sound guy how to adjust the mix. Prince saluted the Time, the Doobie Brothers and the Jackson 5 in song and verbally acknowledged his debt ("I wouldn't be who I am without...") to James Brown, the Jacksons, Chaka Khan, Rufus, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Joni Mitchell and Tower of Power. His pal Larry Graham sat in on bass for a series of Sly & the Family Stone tunes, and backup singer Shelby J, a powerhouse from the southern soul/gospel school, stepped out front on a couple of selections, most notably "The Arms of an Angel." But this show was about Prince, his love of funk and his guitar prowess. He even offered a little "country western" guitar passage, as he playfully put it, and one of his more passionate versions of "Purple Rain" to close the evening. He danced only briefly, during "Kiss," but handpicked some fans to come onstage and dance, a longstanding Paisley tradition at any hour. |
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